1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for controlling a character and a virtual camera in accordance with a position and direction of a card operated by a player in a game in which a screen obtained by perspectively transforming a virtual three-dimensional space, in which the character exists, by means of the virtual camera is displayed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a three-dimensional video game, an object existing in a virtual three-dimensional space is perspectively transformed onto a virtual screen by a virtual camera, and a two-dimensional image generated by means of the perspective transformation is displayed on a display device. This kind of three-dimensional video game is generally implemented by moving a player character in the virtual three-dimensional space by an operation of a player. The player character is directionally changed by the operation of the player when needed. That is, the operation of the player for changing a position and direction of the player character is an element indispensable to the game.
Also, among the three-dimensional video games, there is a card game which uses a card in implementing the game. As this kind of three-dimensional video game, there has been one which is implemented by placing a card, on a face of which information relating to a character is recorded, on a flat reader, and reading the information recorded on the card face in a game machine. In this video game, an arrangement is such that a player character corresponding to the card placed on is moved in accordance with an intuitive operation of a player for operating the card (refer to, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-301264).
Meanwhile, in order to increase a game reality in the heretofore described kind of three-dimensional video game, not only merely in what position or direction the player character is controlled but, above all, a control of a visual point of the virtual camera for imaging an aspect of the player character on a screen is increasingly important. In the heretofore known three-dimensional video game, an arrangement has been such that the control of the virtual camera is automatically carried out, such as by causing it to exactly follow a behavior of the player character, or by switching to any one of a plurality of points in accordance with a position of the player character.
Naturally, there is also a three-dimensional video game arranged so that a position of a visual point, and a direction of a visual axis, of a virtual camera can be controlled by an operation differing from an operation for changing a position and/or direction of a player character. However, an arrangement being such that the control of the position of the visual point, and the direction of the visual axis, of the virtual camera is performed by an operation of a joystick, a button or the like disposed on a game pad, it has been difficult to perform the control of the virtual camera by an intuitive operation of a player.